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John Lang: Earotica
by Jack Bowers
There's something special about a nonet: small enough to have its own personality, yet large enough to sound at times akin to a full-size big band. Bassist John Lang leads a first-class nonet on Earotica, his fourth album as leader. Having given Lang's last disc a rather lukewarm appraisal almost two years ago, it is a pleasure to note that his new album is superior in every respect. Gone are the desultory funk and rock beats, replaced ...
read moreKolotov Mocktails: Ivy Hall
by Jack Bowers
Setting aside the issue of genres (jazz, folk, Americana, funk, R&B, country, whatever), the question becomes: on their debut album, Ivy Hall, does the Tennessee-based and curiously named quartet, Kolotov Mocktails, deliver the goods? And the answer has to be yes, they do. This leads to a second question: is what they are doing jazz? And here the answer is less obvious. Certainly, there are elements of jazz in the form of improvisation and rhythmic patterns, but they are sporadic ...
read moreJohn Lang: Now Ear This
by Jack Bowers
For what it is, bassist John Lang's fourth album, Now Ear This, is quite well done. For jazz fans, the dilemma lies there, precisely in what it is--a series of eleven rock/fusion themes, nine written by Lang, which would be right at home on a smooth jazz/easy listening radio station, for example, but whose jazz content would earn them no more than a tenuous place on any playlist beyond that. Tempos are more or less proximate, as is the steady ...
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